Electrostatic discharge (ESD) control in a semiconductor manufacturing environment commonly utilizes “antistatic” wrist and/or ankle straps to conduct electrostatic charge off of the body surface of personnel operating within the semiconductor manufacturing environment. The antistatic straps are used to remove charge from the surface of personnel working on sensitive electronic equipment and to safely discharge the body surface of the personnel in a controlled manner such that the personnel do not arc to sensitive work pieces or to nearby conductors or voltage sources.
Plasma and charging methods are known in the art for applying plasma or electrical charges to various tissues of a subject with an intended chemical or physical outcome. Once applied to a region of interest on the surface of the tissue of a subject, the charge, or the products of the discharge in general, may be quickly distributed over the entire extent of the tissue surface, such as over the entire body of the subject. This charge dissipation throughout the entire tissue surface “wastes” source materials, de-localizes the intended treatment region of the subject, puts nearby personnel and equipment at risk for electrostatic discharge (ESD) and limits the ability to modulate or maintain the charge density, and hence the electric field, within the intended treatment region of the subject, over time.
While existing technologies are known for applying ions to the tissue surface of a subject, the existing technologies make no effort to control the areal charge density or flux direction of the charge density on the body surface of the subject or patient. In prior art embodiments, ions that are applied to a tissue surface are free to disperse over the area available to them such that, the tissue surface outside the intended treatment region is affected, due to an increase in the local electric field outside the intended treatment region. Also, the magnitude of the electric field outside of the intended treatment region may be significant and as such, may constitute a hazard to nearby personnel and electronic equipment should the critical breakdown field of the air between the nearby personnel or electronic equipment and the charged tissue surface of the subject be reached. In addition, should the charged tissue surface directly contact personnel or equipment, an undesirable transfer of charge to the personnel or equipment may occur at even lower charge densities.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved system and method for preventing the undesirable dissipation of charge throughout a tissue surface while maintaining a desired charge density within an intended treatment region of a subject.